Cabin Fever - C+
Now Playing: (2003, Eli Roth) [seen in theatre]
It becomes clear while watching this that director Eli Roth is a horror movie geek in every sense, which is probably why the film doesn't quite work. On one hand, he's most likely rented every scary movie at the local video store, taking them home by the armload and watching them late at night; on the other hand, he's the kind of guy who lives for horror marathons, where he can shout out snide remarks, yell "take it off" as a sexy actress comes onscreen, laugh at tasteless humor and cheer for gory highlights. As long as the movie's in horror-marathon mode (which I can get behind), it gets the job done. The characters are all jerks, which becomes obvious when the disease plot rears its bloody head, and they take every opportunity to lash out at each other with insulting names that I probably can't post to this weblog (you can imagine the ones I mean). There's also plenty of blood and some interesting skin-sore makeup, which is used most effectively in the "ewwwww"-inducing leg-shaving scene (the movie's highlight, for me anyway). Another example of Roth's geek mindset is the racial slur uttered early on by the shopkeeper- the more gung-ho in the audience laugh, and others feel vaguely embarrassed by this behavior, but Roth's with those who laugh, since the payoff comes late in the movie when we see that it was meant as a joke all along. Meanwhile, it isn't nearly as good at being scary. Part of the problem is that the direction is too polished for a raw, indie-horror feel like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre or The Blair Witch Project, but not eerie or elegant enough to work as big-budget horror. Roth might make a good movie someday, if he can ever decide what kind of horror movie he wants to make; this one feels like this one was made mostly on chutzpah, a valuable trait for a director, but chutzpah alone doesn't make a good movie. Ask Edward D. Wood Jr.

Added 9/6/03: Added a plus to the previously-borderline rating. There's too much entertainment value here to be a straight C, methinks. I enjoyed enough of it enough to be wary of lumping it in with the likes of LXG. So I guess I do change ratings around sometimes. I'm thinking I high-balled Rugrats Go Wild, for example, and I have some other switcheroos in mind as well. More to come.